A chance to Start Again
by BlossomCherryTree
Summary: A girl name Cherry who is always looked down on and neglected by everyone around her and she needs to find herself through her mad life and piece herself back together. The only thing she has left is hope, which is hanging by a thread... This is just some background before you read the real beginning of the story, it would help understand it better.
1. Chapter 1

I then wake up to my alarm. My alarm messes everything up. I reach over to shut it off, but I couldn't find the switch, so I unplugged it. The alarm messes up the ending to my dreams, it messes up my morning, hell, it just messed up my whole day.

I dig through my clothes pile and throw on whatever. Some jean shorts and some shirt I am pretty sure I washed... I think… Yeah… Well… Too late, I am already wearing it. I slip into my black shoes. They may have been converse… Yeah…

I come out of my room and go down the two second trip hallway. I was about to go into the bathroom, but only to be pushed into the other side of the wall. My step sister just ran in. I sigh, rolling my eyes and go into the open living room/ kitchen.

My step father sat on the couch; he was on his laptop, working, as that's all he really does. Other times he is hot headed and then he gets extremely abusive after drinking. It's like a… Dang, what would you call it? Right, a cycle.

My mother, adoptive mother, was sitting at the table, putting on makeup as she was getting ready for work down at the McDonalds. I really don't understand why she needs to put on new eyelashes before going to work, boxing Big Macs.

I mean what if a customer is taking a bite out of there Angus burger and bites a bright pink finger nail, or on top of their fries were fake eyelashes. Maybe she has a boss to impress, or a regular who comes through the drive through to bat her long lashes at.

She sees me in the reflection of the mirror and says, "Cherry, brush your hair." And goes back to rubbing blush on her cheeks. I just look at her back to her long black, wavy hair. Do I look out of place that bad?

Not just my ratty hair, but I mean… Me. Adoptive mom and me where ok at first alone, but then she married some guy and he moved in with his daughter. Of course the daughter hates me; she blames me, and thinks I get all the eyes.

I'm just some laid back chick with either a biological African mom or an African dad, trying to find my way in the world. I tried at things that were important. You know like school, I do get good grades, and just growing up I guess.

Like, I don't know, maybe it's the drugs they got out there now a days. I mean, why would someone huff household scents and sprays like they got no godamn sense? I totally just learned that a few weeks ago in health!

And why buy crack and pot like you do? And don't say, "Oh, I had a bad child hood, my parents raised me HORRIBLE! Oh well…" You snort up the rest of… Whatever that is you were taken, and then ask me for money.

I mean, you really must be low. I don't really plan on drinking and smoking really. And when I see someone complaining they got pregnant over the weekend, I really just want to shot someone up, because of how lazy a person can be.

I walk up the steps to the busy high school. Some people throw paper at each other, others gossiped, and the rest just sit there hangover from Ricky Andersons party last night. He invited me, but I had to personally tell him no, because he was my friend.

He shrugged and walked away. I didn't have too many friends, but Ricky just felt bad for me. So he invited me places and to parties and all because he wanted me to not look as lost from the crowd as I did. But the crowd was too crowded for me to fit into.

Well I sit in one of my three art classes, I flip open my dark blue notebook to a new page. I loved art, but this guy must be on some anti-depressants that really weren't workin for him…

The lights were down low and we were watching a documentary on Van Gogh and how he cut of his ear and his sickness and blah, blah, blah…

We have seen this movie like three times in the past 2 months. I lightly and carefully pulled out one of my good pencil and drew about that mixed up dream I had last night. As the movie was ending, followed by class, I found myself pressing down so hard, the led was far from broken by then.

"And don't forget to read chapters 11 and 12 tonight." He says in that low, monotone voice of his. I shuffled through the hallway with all the other till I found my locker.

As the final bell rang for school to be out, the bigger kids pushed me into the lockers and knocked me real hard onto my back. I got up, looking back at them with a look.

As I was looking to get up, a hand was in front of my face. I smelled something sweet and then without hesitation, stiffed the hand that was presented in front of me. It was like a butter cup scent with a hint of strawberries.

It made me hungry. The hand jerked back some and then I saw whose hand it was. I recognize him from the halls, but I don't really know who he was. He was light skinned, but mostly tan.

I tilt my head one way, then the other. He does the same. He looked a bit surprised. I then looked at my black T-shirt; I was still wearing the one with the Assassins symbol on it.

I look back up at him. He just looked at me like I was… Will, he just looked at me. "I was going to help you… But then you started to smell my hand…"He says. I put my hand over my mouth, trying not to laugh.

"Umm..." He pulled his hand back into his pocket. After a while of him getting tired of looking at my stupid face he asked, "Are you ok?" He then gets onto a knee in front of me.

He picks up my dark blue journal. He looks at the page I drew in art. He tilts his head, trying to figure out what it was supposed to be. "Ok, you don't have to stare now…" I say, snatching it away.

"Sorry, I just was…" He gets up after I do. "I know, I know." I say with a sigh. "But really, are you ok?" He looks over the door of my locker as if peeking in.

I just look up at him and throw the rest of my things in my _Voclids_ side bag. I take the locker away from his hands and slam it back into place. He stands there as I walk off. But then runs after me as I get to the door.

"So, what's your name?" He asks. "Don't you have to be somewhere else?" I try walking a bit faster, hoping he would just leave me alone. "Well sorry I'm just a simply guy asking a simple question…" He looks at the ground.

"Well, you're officially not going to tell me your name, so I call you random names that come to my mind at the time, ok Debbie?" He looks over at me with a grin. "Do you have friends to hang out with?" I keep my noise down.

"Not at the moment…" He looks at his phone. "How about a dying family member?" "Geez, you really don't like me…" He says with a bit of a mocking attitude. "God, do you have a girlfriend?" I stop and turn to him.

He looks down at me. "Do you have a girlfriend, or do you irritate them away?" I look up at him. "What did you ask me?" He looks at me blankly. "DO YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND?" I yell a bit louder than I thought. He laughed and stumbled back some.

"Jerk." I say under my breath and start off again. "Wait, Zoë, I'm sorry!" He says after me, but I had already turned the corner.

When I came home, the craziness had already started. My mom and dad were arguing… Again… And the step child sat on the couch, her arms crossed, looking annoyed. I sigh and keep going. "And that one is always in my way!" He points at me. "That one has a name!" She yells back.

I ignore them and keep going. I fall on my lumpy, worn out matters and close my eyes to my ruff day. There was only less than a week of school; I can pull it together if I really wanted to. Get even better grades then I have, make a friend maybe…

I then fall asleep, another dream to send me to a world without fears and lies. That would be great… I wish I could somehow overcome all these mess, be stronger then this I guess… If only I actual had the courage to so, I would…


	2. Chapter 2 - First Impression

She could have sworn the next moment she opened her eyes, she was awake. It feels like it, but it really feels fuzzy and warm. She was standing in a garden. Not like in your backyard, but a very peaceful Japanese garden.

She was standing on the little, wooden bridge. She was overlooking the little stream under it and the little fishes in the water and the entire natural that seemed to revolve around her, and only her. She was for once alone and at peace in that moment…

She was for once in a state of bliss that was far from understanding, but she toke it in as if she would never experience this again. Something poked the back of her head in a funny way. She quickly, in the fear of a bug, felt to see what it was.

It was only a pair of chopsticks sticking through the bun on her head and touching her scalp. She then decided to officially relax then. But something was wrong as she closed her eyes. The scene became grey. Everything was dark and creepy like.

The beautiful noise of the birds chirping stopped and so did other little animals who laid low on the ground. The only thing now was an ongoing cricket. There was a fog over the water as everything just became black and white.

She jumped in fear and looking over into the water. The fish were swimming along, but then swam quickly out of sight. The water castes a shadow from under and got bigger as it surfaced.

Without thinking, she looked closer over the side. It got bigger and bigger by the second. That's when it came out. Not just one, but five! They all flew out of the water into the air covered in dark green seaweed.

They looked like dark grey ghosts almost, you would have thought. Their red eyes brightened at her and flew around her, closing her in. She looked around as they quickly approached.

She then put her hand on the ground and pushed off with her feet, jumping over the one to her left. She then ran into an abyss of darkness. She ran faster than she ever had before. She had never been so afraid, or not like that at least.

She stopped to couch and chase her breath round and round until it was back in place. She looked around. There was nothing. Like a dark grey, empty, never ending room. Her color was still faded to a sad and washed out of her.

But as she was about to just give up completely on everything she knew, she… Fell… Wait, what? She just… Fell…

But only to see she was falling into a dark space. A short second later, she was falling in a dark space with stars. It was very graceful and a very… open and breezy like feel. It's that feeling you get when you just want to be free for once, not let back, but just be free.

She then opened her eyes again to find herself in a new place. It was like an old garden center. It felt peaceful and at rest.

There was a center fountain that was a large marble circle fountain with shallow water at the bottom and two dolphins jumping out past each other, spitting out water into the fountain. It was dark with twinkly stars out, nothing to science like to stare at.

She sees it was similar to some of her drawing of her past dreams that were fuzzy memory's now... She looked around as she stepped slowly down each step.

There were multiple other doors around the fountain with glass stained pictures on top, almost showing what kind of world it was.

The only problem was that there was no door. There was a stone door way, but no door in it. And the stained glass looked faded from what she remembered or had that déjà vu thing with…

There were small woods surrounding the outer doors. It was almost like a jungle forest. There looked to be gates with giant marble statues.

They looked Greek, because I am really sure that the Greeks did there statues prefect and another place did there based off whatever model they got.

They had their eyes closed, or one of them did, the others head was gone. Their arms were both broken off as well. As she walks closer to them, she looks back to see darkness. But not like a fading darkness, like if I keep walking, I will fall right off.

She turns back around, her head spinning with different thoughts and wired ideas. When she turns all the way around, she takes a step back in surprise. Floating there was an older looking brown owl.

_'Huh… Ok, just exploring its boundaries…' _She thought in her head.

But that's then when she thought that someone was putting ecstasy in her drinks or LSD in her food.

She noticed how the strange creature had little glasses on the tip of his beak and a little… Was that a little brown jacket? She was too busy trying to figure out if she had been on weed her entire life…

"Ooo! I didn't mean to scare you." He says and flaps his wigs closer to her. She keeps walking back.

"Now that's a pretty bird… A pretty little talking damn bird that's all…" She says easy.

"No, no, I don't mean to hurt you. I am here to help…" He flaps backwards.

"Help?" She swallows. "Indeed. You must be wonder where you are." He says.

"Hell yeah I'm wondering." She responds looking around. "Well, first to make things clear, you are in the night demotion. Meaning you are sleeping-" "PAIRSE THE LORD!" She yells and throws her arms in the air.

She starts to do a little dance of victory and relief as she jumps up and down in circles. The poor owl watches in confusion of this new strange visitor. A new type of visitor he has not seen in a very long time.

"Ooo! And you're our newest visitor! What brought you here is called an Ideya. And that is basically what you depend on. You are here to find all of them. No matter how many you have now, but how many you need to find…"

"Alone?" She asks a bit nervously. "No, not completely…" He says almost with a sigh.

"You also have to help defend the night demotion from the nightmarens." He adds quickly. "ALONE?!" She asks a bit louder.

"Not exactly." She hears a new voice from behind. "Do I DARE turn around?" She mumbles to herself as she slid around on her toes.

There was floating something new. New to her at least. The strange thing floated a little above ground, standing tall and graceful. It had purple horns covering its head, bending down back.

She put her hands on her hips as well as the floating jester did. "Skinny little bitch…" She says under her breath. None of them herd, but the look on her face was not so… Nice…

After a moment of awkward silence, the jester floats around her and then gets a smile.

"My name is NiGHTS. What's your name?" It asks. She got to thinking that NiGHTS was somewhat of a she, but then again…

She looks up a bit nervous. "Cherry Blossom Tree Antoinetta Davenport …" Out of all the names they have ever heard, that was surly extremely different from anything they had ever heard.

"But I like to go by Cherry." She looks down, rubbing her wrist. "Well, it's nice to meet you Cherry!" NiGHTS smiles. "And let me ask you this…"

"Cherry, what are your thoughts on flying?" NiGHTS seems to sit. "Ummm… What are you hinting at exactly?" She gives a very unsure look.

"Flying, have you ever thought about it?" She asks again. "Well…" She looked down. "I'm afraid of heights, but I love it…"

Then NiGHTS holds out her hand to Cherry. "You don't really want to hold hands do you?" Cherry looks at her hand then back at her.

"Can you trust me?" She asks with a wink. "You're scaring me NiGHTS…" She gives her this nervous look. "But do you?" "I guess, even though I just meant you-" "Then come on!"

Cherry looks at her hand, covered with a white glove. She shrugs, thinking her life is over anyways and places her palm against NiGHTS.

The old bird was talking in the background, but no one was really listening. That happening a lot, he sighs to see he was alone by then.

"Careful!" NiGHTS exclaims as they try to find a point in between where they can stay steady. "Oh, god, oh, god, oh god…" Cherry repeats to herself.

"Relax!" NiGHTS tries to tell her over and over again, but Cherry could only pray should would not look down or end up… Dead…

"Ok, can you listen to me for one second, Cherry?" NiGHTS asks after she clams down a bit. "Yeah, yeah, sure man, whatever… Just don't kill me… Oh god…"

"Ok, I'm going to get us going and then I will let you get a shot at it and then let you take control after you get used to it, ok?" NiGHTS says extremely calm, hoping this won't be the worst flying class she has ever done.

NiGHTS sighs and then started to fly in a bit of a slow circle around the center fountain. "Are you ok?" She asks Cherry. She didn't hear a thing at first and then Cherry said, "Yeah man, yeah. It's… All good…"

"Now you try." NiGHTS tells her as she relaxes herself, letting Cherry take over. She slowly started to fly a head. "Hey, ok, ok. This is alright…." She says after a few short inches in the air. Cherry then toke a deep breath and started to fly without hesitation.

"CHERRY!" NiGHTS says loudly and scratches them to a hald. Cherry opened her eyes to see a tree in front of them.

NiGHTS, which was thinking something a bit rude to say then got a grin and said, "Let's try again..."

Since NiGHTS had never really had too much trouble teaching the kids how to fly, she never thought of it as a large task. But this… She felt the same as when her sibling would lock her in a cage away from a visitor.

It was forestation… She never had to hold a large grasp of it at a time, but she didn't like it one bit and deiced to get trying so this feeling would go away.

After a 15 to 20 circles around the fountain, Cherry could finally fly with ease. NiGHTS felt good about getting her used to it, so when they actual had to fly around, she could just learn a bit along the way and leave the rest to be.

They finally spit from each other and rested. Cherry toke deep breaths as she leaned on the fountain. She then, with much laziness, let herself fall back into the shallow water. She caught herself and just put her hands it.

"YES!" NiGHTS jumped in excitement. Cherry sneezed twice in a row, and then looked up. In a foundation of the shape of a door was a door. The door glowed little sparkles and seemed refreshing.

"Ooo! Look what we have here!" Owl floated up next to NiGHTS. Cherry got up and came over. She looked in between the two of them as they stare at the door.

"It's a-" The owl started, but Cherry jumped in excitedly.

"Wait! Let me guess! A buffet? No! In indoor water park slash resort and casino! Oh, oh! Meat. A world made out of different kinds of cooked meats!" Cherry jumped with joy.

NiGHTS and Owl just looked at each other in complete shock. "How many Ideya do you have?" Owl asked. "Yeah, what is that?" She asked unsure.

"… An Ideya is… Let me put it this way, for you. There are five of them. Red is courage, white is purity, blue is intelligence, green is growth, and yellow is hope. As you see there are 10 openings. One is filled with a door, and you brought it here with the Ideya you withhold… "

He says carefully. "So… Which one do I have?" "One cannot just 'know' which one they have… You have to explore it first. You may know. Do you know your heart? Because this is basically what it is. A reflection of yourself." Owl explains.

"So, we go in and then we find out?" Cherry says slowly. "Yes, exactly!" Owl laughs to see someone somewhat get it.

"It's a paradise! Come on now!" NiGHTS jumps in, pulling Cherry by her arm to the door. "I'm not so sure, I mean, this has been enough excitement for one night! And I do stuff when I'm awake! I wanted to sleep!" She says.

NiGHTS ignores her and pulls her through the door. And the moment cherry saw her world, she almost cried, but held in what she was seeing of herself. A mirror reflection of her heart.


End file.
